A Sister’s Duty
by Timothy D
Summary: The bonds of family are something that cannot be so easily broken. Even when our siblings annoy us, we’d do anything to keep them safe. The same is true for the Loud Family as well as Lincoln is about to find out.


It seems that every family, every classroom, every friend group or other similar collection of acquaintances always their designated comic relief. The class clown, the wise guy/wise girl, the funny one, the punmaker, joke maker, never can be called a faker. Someone who always did their best to lift the spirits of everyone else, whether that came in the form of clever word play, harmless practical jokes, or even the occasional dirty joke. Sometimes the results were hit and miss, but they always did their best to cheer up as many people as they could and put smiles on their faces. For the Loud Family, Luan certainly fell into that category of funny girl.

It was rare a day went by where Luan didn't crack jokes or make a pun of some kind. Most times, she'd be in a chipper mood, smiling and giggling as she told her jokes. It wasn't often that you saw her sad or upset about anything, usually because she preferred not to let her siblings see her in such a state. She'd much rather be trying to make them laugh with her clowning skills. That's not to say she always succeeded in doing so. In fact, most of the time, her puns only elicited annoying groans and eye rolls from her siblings. Luan never let that get her down, remembering the number one rule of comedy in that it is completely subjective. There was one time that she overheard her siblings talking about getting annoyed by her jokes, causing her to nearly give up her dream, but she'd come a long way since then.

That's not to say that Luan's comedy was completely carefree and harmless. Anyone who'd lived through an April Fools at the Loud House could tell you just how chaotic that holiday could be with the young jester pulling off some of the most creative, off the wall pranks ever deceived. Something about April Fools just seemed to bring out the worst in Luan. At the end of the day however, even those pranks were in good spirits, no matter how cruel they could seem.

With someone like Luan, it would be rather easy to write her off as just a harmless jester. To consider her to merely be a silly clown, nothing more and nothing less. The more foolish would take it a step further and dismiss her off as being an annoying idiot. They couldn't be any more wrong. While she may have played the part pretty well, Luan was far from a hapless idiot. Lisa may have been considered the genius of the family, but Luan proved that at times she could be just as smart and cunning, if not moreso. The amount of planning and preparation that she put into aforementioned April Fools pranks was proof of that. The fact that she was capable of outsmarting her entire family and predicting their reactions to said pranks was further proof of her intellect. All this is to say that Luan is someone who shouldn't be taken lightly by any means.

Now, as families tend to do, Luan was just as prone as getting into fights with her siblings as the others. Heck, sometimes she even started them, but despite all of their arguing, infighting and bickering the Louds were as close as any family. If you mess with one of them, you mess with all of them and each of them had their own way of dealing with the offender. Luan was no exception and while she usually or preferred keeping her usual practical joke like approach, she could also be very straightforward in terms of retaliation. In other words, mess with Luan and her family at your own peril. One particular jerk was about to learn this lesson the hard way.

A normal day, today had started off as a normal day. It was the weekend and as to be expected, the Louds were enjoying their break from school by doing what they loved best; all except for two that is. Luan found herself having a rare weekend where she didn't have to clown at someone else's birthday party and Lincoln was alone for the weekend as Clyde had accompanied his dads to a retreat over the weekend. With no one else to hang out with and the rest of his sisters busy with their own thing, Lincoln figured there was no harm in asking Luan if she was willing to spend time with him.

"Hey Luan," He greeted her, holding a frisbee behind his back.

"Hey Linc, what's up?" Luan asked, taking the opportunity to tell one of her jokes. "Did I ever tell you the difference between a poorly dressed man on a unicycle and a well dressed man on a bicycle?"

"No, what's the difference?" Lincoln asked.

"Attire," Luan answered, letting out bubbly little laugh and asking "Get it?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Lincoln said, rolling his eyes even if he did have to admit that the joke was clever. "Listen, do you think that maybe you could come with me to the park?"

"Hmm?" Luan asked.

"I know it might be asking a lot, but I'm practically bored out of my mind and I don't have anyone else to hang out with so I was hoping-," Lincoln said before Luan interjected.

"Say no more," Luan said. "Of course I'll go with you."

"Really?" Lincoln asked, his eyes lighting up.

"Sure," Luan said. "It's not like I have anything to really do either."

"Thank you!" Lincoln said.

"Honestly, this'll be just like when you were little and we used to go to the park all the time," Luan said, smiling fondly as she recalled the memories they had. "I remember watching Lynn teach you how to throw a ball for the first time."

"What about the time Leni accidentally launched me into the air on the seesaw and you had to catch me?" Lincoln reminded her.

Luan laughed and said "How can I forget? I really hurt my shoulder catching you? Talk about being disarmed!"

"Heheh, yeah, sorry about that," Lincoln said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Luan told him. "It's all part of a sister's duty."

"Is teasing me part of a sister's duty too?" Lincoln asked.

"Since you're our only brother, yes," Luan laughed.

"Hey!" Lincoln objected.

"To be fair, getting teased is part of being a little sister too," Luan told him.

"It is?" Lincoln asked. "Did Lori, Leni, and Luna pick on you when you were little?"

"All the time," Luan said. "Where do you think I got my good sense of humor from?"

"I honestly thought you were born making jokes," Lincoln laughed.

"A funny thought, but no," Luan laughed along.

"Is there anything else you remember from when I was young?" Lincoln asked.

"Plenty," Luan answered. "Like, remember when that bet we made when we couldn't do the things we loved most?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Lincoln asked.

"Let's just say that wasn't the first time you wore Lori's leggings," Luan said.

"Really?" Lincoln asked.

"Yep," Luan said. "And let's just say that unlike the last time, the first time you wore them left Lori plenty pee o'd, if you catch me drift."

"Huh?" Lincoln asked before he got Luan's joke. "Oh… yikes."

"To be fair, it was kinda funny seeing Lori lose it," Luan said.

By this point, the siblings had made it to the park. It was a bright and beautiful day to hang at the park, with the sun shining bright and nary a cloud in the sky. The birds were chirping cheerfully as other denizens walked their pets or went on a light jog. Near the playground, a group of children played on the jungle gym and in the sandbox, not having a care in the world. Fortunately, the park wasn't too crowded, giving Lincoln and Luan plenty of room to play around.

"So what did you want to come to the park for anyway?" Luan asked.

"I was just hoping we could play frisbee with each other," Lincoln said sheepishly.

"Sure, I'd love to," Luan said. "Just tell me how far you want me to go and throw it my way."

"In that case… go long!" Lincoln said, throwing the frisbee as far as he could.

"Wow, catching that seems like it'll be a long shot!" Luan joked, chasing after the frisbee and catching it with one hand. "HAHAHA! Get it?" She asked before throwing it back at Lincoln.

She ended up throwing the frisbee just a little too high, forcing Lincoln to leap into the air to catch it. Lincoln pulled it off though, catching the disc with both hands and even landing on the ground with a triumphant pose. He then spun around a couple of times and tossed the disc back at Luan, putting a little too much strength into his throw and almost knocking Luan to the ground and in fact dropping her to one knee.

"Oops, sorry!" Lincoln apologized.

"I see those "sparring" sessions with Lynn are paying off," Luan chucked, getting back to her feet before tossing the disc back at Lincoln.

"They certainly put hair on your chest," Lincoln replied, taking a second to look down his shirt and at his chest. "Even if not in a literal sense."

The two of them tossed the frisbee back and forth for more than a few minutes, each of them taking the chance to act as silly as possible while doing so, hoping to throw the other off and cause them to fail at catching the disc. Finally, Luan found herself a bit tired and was sweating and had to take a time out.

"Man, maybe I should join you and Lynn during your sparring sessions," Luan said, taking a second to catch his breath.

"Giving up already?" Lincoln asked teasingly.

"What? No way," Luan replied. "Frisbee way too much fun for me to give up now."

"So you're up for another round?" Lincoln asked.

"Sure," Luan said. "Just give me a few minutes to use the bathroom, I'll be right back."

"Okay, I'll be waiting," Lincoln said as Luan walked away.

As he waited, Lincoln decided to toss the frisbee to himself to pass the time, running back and forth to catch the flying toy. As he did so, Lincoln made the mistake of throwing the frisbee too hard while not looking where he was throwing. As a result, the frisbee ended up hitting a random passerby in the head.

"Uh oh," Lincoln said.

"Hey, what the heck!?" The person cursed. He was much larger than Lincoln and appeared to be in his early teens.

"Sorry about that," Lincoln said, running over to retrieve his frisbee. "I didn't mean to hit you, it was an accident."

"You little brat, do you think this is funny?" The teen hissed, towering over Lincoln.

"What? N-No, I just-," Lincoln tried to say.

"How would you like it if I hit you in the head?" The teen asked, sizing Lincoln up. "Except instead of a little piece of plastic, I'd be hitting you with my fist."

"I, um…" Lincoln stammered.

"Because I'm getting a good idea to smack you upside your head, you little brat," The teen threatened, grabbing Lincoln by his collar.

"Wait, Wait, please I-," Lincoln tried pleading with the boy.

"Yeah, I think a proper thrashing is exactly what you need," The bully said, reading his fist back.

It was at this moment that Luan returned from the bathroom. Naturally, she took offense to some meathead harassing her brother.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Luan asked as she approached the teen bully.

"Back off, girly," The bully snarled. "This is between me and this little bloke."

"That little bloke happens to be my brother," Luan told him.

"Oh yeah?" The bully asked. "And I suppose you want me to let him go, is that correct?"

"I'd appreciate it, yes," Luan said politely, giving the bully a sweet smile that simultaneously screamed "Do not f with him or else"

"And what are you going to do if I don't?" The bully challenged her.

"Do you really want to find out?" Luan retorted, still smiling at the bully.

The bully laughed and taunted her, saying "You're pretty funny, you know that!"

"That's what everyone tells me," Luan replied.

"I'll tell you what, I'll let go of your dweeb brother…" the bully said "if you give me a kiss"

Luan visibly gagged and said "Sorry, I threw up in my mouth a little."

"Suit yourself," The bully said, rearing his hand back to slap Lincoln across the face.

He never got the chance as the second he did so, Luan pulled Lincoln out of the bully's grasp and instead slapped him across the face.

"Why you little…" the bully hissed, punching Luan in the chest.

Luan didn't even so much as flinch and knocked the bully out cold with a punch to the face. Afterwards, she took a moment to check on Lincoln.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lincoln said. "That was totally awesome! The way you knocked that guy out, I can't believe it."

"What else was I supposed to do?" Luan asked. "Let him beat you up?" Luan laughed. "No way, especially after he was talking smack."

Luan dropped to one knee, the wind having been driven out of her by that punch. She quickly regained her composure and stood back up.

"Are you okay?" Lincoln asked.

"Yeah… just a little winded," Luan said.

"Why did you stand up for me like that?" Lincoln asked. "Even taking a hit for me?"

"Remember what I mentioned about a sister's duty?" Luan asked.

"Yeah," Lincoln answered.

"Well, standing up for my little siblings is a big part of that," Luan said, asking Lincoln "Wouldn't you do the same for Lucy? Or the twins? Or Lucy? And especially Lily?"

"Well, yeah, of course I would," Lincoln said.

"It's the same way with me and you," Luan said. "We may fight a lot and I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with, but you're still my little brother. As far as I'm concerned, no one is allowed to hurt you while I'm around."

"Do you really mean that?" Lincoln asked.

"From the bottom of my heart," Luan promised. "So, you up for another round?"

"You bet," Lincoln said, retrieving the frisbee and tossing it to Luan.

It's important to remember that no family is the Waltons and for a family of 11, that outcome is pretty much guaranteed. There'll be plenty of fighting and arguing, yelling and shouting and unkind things that'll be said. At the end of the day, what makes a family a family is the willingness to put aside these arguments and come together for the sake of their collective wellbeing. No matter how much they annoy each other, they would've give any of them up for anything in the world.


End file.
